Loneliness is something all humans have dealt with, at least a few times in their lives. Whether short-lived or long-lasting, loneliness is not only associated with a keenly painful negative emotional experience, it can also lead to additional physiological and mental impairments.
It is also worth noting that loneliness, while subjective as an experience, cannot by definition exist entirely in the self. It is a reaction to the circumstances around us, to our perceived social isolation, i.e., our experience of our relation to others. Research into the condition of loneliness and what causes and perpetuates it must thus necessarily make social observations.
It was with this strategy in mind that a pair of researchers from California and Warsaw examined the role of smile mimicry (spontaneously “smiling back”) in loneliness. Their findings shed light on the mechanisms by which social interactions feed into and reinforce (or reduce) the perception of loneliness. Their study, involving 35 undergraduate students, appeared in Social Neuroscience.
Participants were presented with a series of 5-second video clips of individuals expressing anger, fear, sadness or joy, and testing in conditions of spontaneous mimicry (“pay attention to the videos” as they would be asked about them later); deliberate mimicry (“make the same expression as the person in the video”); and affective images (positive or negative images were shown, and participants asked to rate them as such). Facial muscular movements were recorded via facial electromyography (fEMG).
The authors found that higher loneliness correlated with impairment of spontaneous, but not deliberate, mimicry of smiles. Additionally, no differences were found in relation to responses to negative-emotion stimuli, whether in attention, perception, or evaluation.
Lonely individuals thus have the ability to mimic smiles, but fail to do so spontaneously, although they do spontaneously respond to negative images. This has important consequences for understanding how loneliness is reinforced in social situations, as it’s well-known that shared smiling and spontaneous mutual smiling reinforces social bonds and encourages bonding behavior, like engaging in conversation.
What’s more, lonely individuals may be entirely unaware of their absence of response to this important social cue. If they are, however, it may further reinforce social disengagement (the authors note the dually destructive forces of “Was I awkward?” and “They were awkward.” evaluations).
Loneliness, especially long-lasting loneliness, is powerfully uncomfortable, and can lead to depression and a variety of other mental, neurological and physiological consequences. It’s also a phenomenon experienced by most individuals at some point in their life, making studies like the present one universally interesting and applicable. Future research will be needed to unravel how semi- and subconscious emotional cues and responses play into feelings of loneliness and social rejection or isolation.
The study, “Smile (but only deliberately) though your heart is aching: Loneliness is associated with impaired spontaneous smile mimicry“, was authored by Andrew J. Arnold and Piotr Winkielman.
